Moral Education Transcribed talk of Dr. Farzam Arbab 1

Transcription

1 Moral Education Transcribed talk of Dr. Farzam Arbab 1 this plane. I think, it is very useful to ask ourselves why did it have to start here? The answers are many and certainly we can pass on our MORAL EDUCATION TRANSCRIBED TALK OF DR. FARZAM ARBAB On passing through this life our empty life, we face the fact that our soul in its eternal journey towards God has a certain or relatively short amount of time in this world and has to do a great deal with the development of spiritual qualities and the acquisition of its spirituality. We know that from the very beautiful and profound analogy that Abdul-Bahá, Son of Bahá u lláh, the Founder Prophet of the Baha i Faith has presented us that in fact as in the womb of the mother a child develops certain attributes, develops those faculties that he or she needs in this world, develops eyes to see which obviously he does not need in the womb, develops his ears, develops his teeth, develops his legs and feet to walk on, in the same way, in this world, we develop the faculties that we need to function with in the next world. These faculties are such faculties as spiritual eyes, spiritual ears, spiritual understanding and basically the whole category of things that we call spiritual qualities. The same way as we needed certain physical faculties and mental faculties here, we need love, trustworthiness, honesty, compassion, generosity. All these different qualities that basically finally define the soul. It is with those qualities that our soul after death continues on its eternal journey. We understand that very well and always in our minds, we associate moral education or moral behaviour with those qualities, with those virtues. We need to think more about the very fact that the journey of our soul starts on wisdom in our reasons for creation. But one conclusion that we immediately reach is that somehow the interactions of this world, the relationships that are established in this world, the sufferings, the tests, the trials, the joy, the motions, the stillness, all these different attributes and all these different things that have to do with our stay in this world are necessary, and are essential for the acquisition of these spiritual qualities. Obviously, if we have to start life here, this is the place that we have to develop our spiritual qualities. Somehow this is the place, inspite of the fact that we have to transcend it, be detached from it, overcome it, we have to do something here. Which means that the development of our spiritual qualities cannot be considered as something purely internal to each one of us. We are not each an isolated island. We cannot just say that the purpose of my life is to know God, is to develop my qualities and I am going to do that by myself, by just praying, by meditating and by doing many things that are correct and which we should do. But somehow those things cannot be all because if they were, there would have been no need for us to come into this world in order to be able to develop these spiritual faculties that we need in our journey towards God. So this world and the society that we create is an essential part of the spiritual development of each one of us. We, ourselves as Baha is often forget, how much our activities in society, how much our contribution to building a society is an essential aspect of our own spiritual development. We also talk of the many religious traditions that think that everything else is not essential and my spiritual destiny and my relation with God and my spiritual qualities that

2 Moral Education Transcribed talk of Dr. Farzam Arbab 2 I acquire are all that matter. As if somehow we could separate that from the environment, from the society in which we live. Society then is the context within which we develop our spiritual qualities even though our spiritual qualities are very personal things between us and God. That is the first point that I wanted to make. Now, the second point merits meditation on our part. There is a unique characteristic or attribute of our interaction with society with this environment within which we grow and develop which doesn t exist, for example in the analogy of the womb. As we grow in society one of our essential characteristics is to change the environment within which we are growing. The environment doesn t just stay there constant for us to grow in. Spiritual growth of each one of us individually means that we are supposed to change that environment and improve it, the social environment. Now what that really says is that two types of progress or time, if you wish, are set up. Two types of movement are set up. One is the movement of each one of our souls towards God in time, and the other one is the movement of entire humanity so that each time because of what we have done on that environment, that environment becomes a better place for the spiritual growth of the next generation of souls that come to it. So somehow although our individual soul s journey to God mostly occurs not in this world yet it is connected intimately with what we call an ever-advancing civilization which is a phenomenon of this world and it s movement in time is concerned with generations and not just with that same soul. Each soul comes into it and leaves it. So there are two types of continuity we are talking about. A continuity of life of our own, and the historical continuity for the entire human race. Those two things are not separate from each other. That is why we say that the purpose of our life is to know and to worship God. That means my soul. And sometimes we say we have been created to carry on an ever-advancing civilization and usually we don t connect those two things together in our minds. But they are very much connected these two movements in time. These two types of progress. What does that mean? That means then that the development of my spiritual qualities, my personal progress cannot be separated from the advancement of civilization. They are connected. That means that we can t talk about moral education, the way the past religions have. We cannot talk about morality just in terms of certain things that each one of us has for ourselves. There is a social context, there is a question of the building of civilization which is related to the acquisition of the spiritual qualities we need. If we think this way then it becomes very clear that moral education and questions of morality in general cannot be examined in isolation from the forces that shape society and move civilization and they certainly then cannot be separated from those forces that create a movement of history. Those forces that in a given moment have to do with the decline of civilization or the creation of a new civilization are very much related and are very much important for the question of morality and for moral education. Now again an obvious statement, but not as obvious as it sounds. It s not as trivial as it sounds because you could say alright what are we talking about. What about the good old virtues? After all isn t morality a set of virtues that we each have to have? Don t we always say that the religions from the past have always been teaching the same virtues, the same moral laws? They have been teaching love, they have been teaching honesty, generosity, compassion. Don t we all say that? And that again in this religion also, in this new age the acquisition of those same eternal virtues that have been with humanity and every Prophet of

3 Moral Education Transcribed talk of Dr. Farzam Arbab 3 God has talked about is necessary. Isn t that the object of our moral or spiritual education? Then what is all this complication about society and the forces of civilization and so on? How come then all of a sudden you are saying that somehow this is time-dependant. That somehow the meaning of moral education today is different from the meaning of moral education two thousand years ago, if love has always been love. So one can also ask that question and the answer of course is well, yes, virtues are virtues, moral education is the acquisition of these virtues but the fact remains that the understanding of the meaning of the spiritual qualities or a moral law, the way it is applied, its implications are not constant in time at all. As society advances the same words take totally new meanings. And until and unless we understand them in their new meaning, we are going to miss the whole question of moral education and even with our own children s classes we are apparently going to be developing virtues and talking about moral laws but we are going to be doing it exactly the same way that the Christians are doing it or the Muslims are doing it or the way that it was done a thousand years ago or two thousand years ago with the wisdom of those times without any real consideration for the needs of today. Let me read a quotation from the Writings of Abdu l-baha where he clearly says this but I don t know how much we have thought about it in this context. We often read the passages from the Writings in different contexts and we don t connect them together or to the contexts that are not exactly the thing that we are looking at the time. He says from every standpoint the world of humanity is undergoing a reformation. The laws of former governments and civilization are in process of revision. Scientific ideas and theories are developing and advancing to meet a new range of phenomenon. Invention and discovery are penetrating hitherto unknown fields revealing new wonders and hidden secrets of the material world. Industries have vastly wider scope and production. Everywhere the world of mankind is in the throes of revolutionary activities indicating the passing of the old conditions and advent of the new age of reformation. Old trees yield no fruitage. Old ideas and methods are obsolete and worthless now. All the standards of ethics, moral codes and methods of living in the past will not suffice for the present age of advancement and progress. So He is calling for new moral codes and new standards of ethics even though spiritual qualities have always been the subject of all the religions in the past. So really when one begins to think about the context of morality and moral education, it becomes clear that change is the order of the day. That somehow the morality of change has to be considered and not the morality of keeping the status quo and that somehow the morality of change is not necessarily the same as the morality of no change, of keeping the status quo. The point at stake is the building of a new civilization. We all talk about the advancement of science and technology, the great choices that all of a sudden humanity has got and we know that these choices now vary from the possibility of annihilation of the whole human race to the building of a most glorious civilization. What of course the majority of humanity is not yet attuned to is that these choices that they are talking about are not simply choices of this technology versus that technology, they are not scientific and technological choices they are not political and economic choices, they are basically moral choices and that a new morality and a new moral education has to bring about a new generation of human beings who are capable of making these new moral choices. Now you can have wonderfully loving people, very generous, very honest and trustworthy and so on who will make the most terrible choices when it come to

4 Moral Education Transcribed talk of Dr. Farzam Arbab 4 choices of technology, the choices of different ways that are open to society unless their morality, the way they have been trained in morality, has gone beyond traditional acquisition of virtues. Unless they have many more virtues than traditionally was expected of us to have and unless the same virtues that have the same names as before, now have taken a new meaning so that trustworthiness now doesn t mean the same thing as trustworthiness a thousand years ago. It means that plus much more. So, these are questions that I hope as we go on with these ideas with examples and so on, you will actually see what it is that we are really trying to convey. So, the traditional concept of a good person somehow proves to be inadequate today. The good person who doesn t lie, who doesn t do harm to anybody, who loves his neighbour, who lives according to the Golden Rule and all these wonderful things that continue to be wonderful things, somehow is not enough. He is not as moral as we need him to be. He is not immoral but he is not as moral as really this time we live in, of great change, requires of him. We need a morality of an active person. The morality of a passive good person is not good enough any more. We have to develop a system of moral education that creates people who are able to build a new civilization and are able to bring about change. The question we need to ask is how much are we doing with our children and with ourselves and with our youth? And how much what we call moral education at this point, is concerned with the upbringing of a good Christian or a good Muslim or a good citizen of the world as defined before and how much with the upbringing of a new personality that humanity has never seen before. Who is moral in the sense that he has all the moral instruments and the moral authority and the moral power to participate in social transformation, to participate in the creation of a new civilization? While you think about that let me say a few more words about some of the implications of this way of looking at the question of the development of spiritual qualities and virtues which as I said before still will be the object of moral education and we will still have to look at the question of trustworthiness and honesty and love and compassion. It s just that their meanings are going to have to be expanded enormously. Now what we are saying really about the ability of this moral individual to change the world and the fact that his/her morality is closely related to his/her ability to bring about change in himself/herself. This very important quality or ability in the person that the moral education system has to develop, is the capability of working on oneself and working on the environment at the same time, in order to change the environment. This means that a system of moral education while it is concerned with the morality of the individual, has also to be concerned simultaneously with the change of the structures of society, to create the ability in the individual to change the structures of society. I would like to give you a couple of examples to see why and how important that it is. Take the question for example of prejudice. Now for most of us coming from a tradition in which the individual is everything, good or bad, anything bad in society is because individuals are bad, anything good in society is because individuals are good, because most of us have difficulty thinking of society as anything more than just the sum of the individuals. Social forces, the structures, all these are too abstract ideas that we don t want to deal with. So as far as we are concerned, society is just a bunch of individuals so if they are all good then society is good, if they are all bad society is bad. It s a very simple

5 Moral Education Transcribed talk of Dr. Farzam Arbab 5 way of looking at the world. So one would think that if prejudice is bad so the way you have a system of moral education that teaches people not to have prejudice, then prejudice will disappear. It is as simple as that. But let us take for example, a person, in this case a man, who has no prejudice against women, really in his heart has accepted that men and women are equal and fine. Now this very good unprejudiced person, if he lives in a society where one of the structures of society, let s say family, with all its traditions and cultural views and unspoken rules is such that it does not allow men and women to participate in things equally. This very good unprejudiced person will participate in the process in a system in which men dominate women and he will never know it, if he does not understand that prejudice is not just the matter of individual attitudes, it is also a problem of the structures of society. Along the same lines, if the structures of society are such that just the way the educational system is established, the way the timings of examinations is established, the way the questions are established, naturally will not allow equal numbers of men and women to achieve certain levels so that they could participate in all the affairs in society. Not because there are any laws or any strictures that say no to women but because they have organized things traditionally from the time when there was prejudice in such a way that in very subtle ways the women are barred from certain activities. When you finally look at the statistics, because of the period of time that the woman is bearing a child and so on, it just works in such a way that they can t. You can have all the wonderful attitudes and this man really has no prejudice at all but he will be participating in a society the structures of which embody prejudice against women. This is just one example because I know that so many of us have difficulties withthis question of structures and of coursei know that in many of your minds you say but if all the attitudes change then won t the structures change? The answer is no because these two things work on each other and you will never get all the attitudes to change unless you are working at the same time on changing some of the structures. Another example I can give you is that you can have a person who believes in justice, believes in equity, who is a person of great rectitude of conduct but he works in a system in which the way to reach important decisions is by lobbying. Lobbying is accepted as an ethical way of establishing the laws of society. What does lobbying mean? Lobbying means that groups who have certain interests of their own not necessarily the interests of society, will put pressure according to their power in order to move society in such a way that they gain or keep their interests. Now, how can this very just person actually be just in that society? What does it mean that he is just? If the structure of decisionmaking of the society has inherent in it injustice, has inherent in it that those who have more power will get more power because lobbying is considered immoral to do behind closed doors, but if you do it openly, it is legal, it is ethical and it is moral. If that is the moral structure of society what does it mean then to say that a person can reach the heights of justice. He can be just within that framework and in his own dealings with people he can be just but he cannot go all the way in his justice and in his love for equity. These are just examples to show that the theme of moral education cannot be only personal virtues in the old sense. Somehow some new virtues have to come in which enable the person to work on the structures of society and understand those structures that are not moral in the highest sense and not participate in them, change them, again in ways that are moral according to the Baha i teachings. This means through unity building not through conflict,

6 Moral Education Transcribed talk of Dr. Farzam Arbab 6 not through revolution in the old sense and not through the use of force but by the useof the tongue and the powerful utterances but consistently working and trying to change the structures of society. So this is an important example again which often doesn t occur to us. Now this has very practical applications. All of these things have very practical applications. Somehow as we bring up our little children in our moral education classes we have to be sure that by the time they are eighteen years old, we have given them this capacity or this ability. And we haven t just tried to create wonderful individuals in the old sense, to educate people who are just wonderful people but can just go along society, follow its wrong things and not even understand what is wrong with it and their only answer to everything is oh, if everybody would love each other a little bit more, if we would all live by the Golden Rule, every problem would be solved. So moral education for us will have to mean something much more than that. This is the statement of the lateguardian of the Baha i Faith, Shoghi Effendi. He says that we cannot segregate the human heart from the environment outside us and say that once one of these is reformed, everything will be improved. Man is organic with the world. His inner life moves the environment and is itself also deeply affected by it. The one acts upon the other and every abiding change in the life of man is the result of these mutual reactions. The world will not be changed by only changing the human heart. From a letter dated 17 th February 1933 written on behalf of Shoghi Effendi to an individual believer. Let me say a few more words of this concept of the relationship between the question of building civilization of being involved in making history and the question of individual virtues and the acquisition of spiritual qualities of our soul. The problem is or the challenge is that even the meaning of qualities or the way we understand what qualities mean depends often on the social and cultural context within which we live and often on the kind of ideological background that we have. Let me give you just one example. Take such qualities as humility, obedience, courage, frankness. Suppose a system of moral education by the best people of the world is given in a social organization in which the majority are there to serve the few lords. That is the social structure and the stability of society depends on that. Now think of a Sunday class or a Children s class in which the teacher tells the children of that population of those people, about courage or about obedience and what will the teacher tell them the same virtues, extolling virtues that we all believe in. Now take another class in a society which considers the individual as the ultimate reality which is based on unbridled individualism like some societies, what will they say about courage, obedience, humility and so on. Then think what a society which considers on the one hand that one of the purposes of society is to allow the spiritual growth of the individual. But on the other hand, the will of the individual can only operate in absolute submission to the Will of God and not only that, it has to be heavily modified by the will of the community of the totality of the people. What would they say about humility, courage, frankness and obedience? Now they would all be teaching the same virtues but depending on what is on their mind, what society is on their mind, what culture is on their mind, what social ideology is on their mind, they will be teaching very differently. The question again is when we teach our children about the virtues, the part that we have them memorize the quotations is fine, but then the things we say, the things we write, the games we play so that they learn that virtue, the poetry that we pull out of our little books here and there and then from our cultural background, all the things we do to teach them these virtues and qualities, where did they come from? What images do

7 Moral Education Transcribed talk of Dr. Farzam Arbab 7 we have in our mind? What society are we thinking about? These are all very important issues then of moral education. What I have been trying to do is to convince you that moral education is not as simple as it sounds. But you see how easy it is to fall for things thinking that one is doing very well without really considering the totality, the wholeness of the question of moral education and the morality of this new race of men, this new person who has never existed in the history of humanity a Baha i. In our own history the morality of Quddus, the morality of Tahirih, of Mulla Husayn. Not the morality of a movie star, of a singer, of a philosopher, of a university professor, of a successful businessman or all the other idols we have created from the best that we have in this world. We have to be clear about our goal and about where we want to go. This question of moral education in the context of the development of our own qualities and changing society, clearly has to do with the understanding of one of the basic forces that creates the historical moment, which is that force that is pushing humanity from childhood into adulthood. Unless we understand that and unless somehow this concept is clearly present in whatever conception of moral education we have, we are going to miss the boat. We have to understand that the basic force that propels us and propels history is that force of God that is pushing humanity forcefully taking him out of childhood and making him to be a mature person. Therefore the morality of the child is not our concern, it is the morality of the adult. We have to understand that we are working with an adolescent. Those of you who are educators certainly know that you can t deal with a six year old the same way as with a fourteen year old. The adolescent is different. What is going on in the soul of an adolescent. Humanity is an adolescent. Therefore the question of that moral education, that process of moral education, that takes the adolescent and helps him to become a mature youth is not the same as that moral education that two thousand years ago had to deal with six year old children, with humanity as a child. So again another indication of the fact that somehow we will have to come up with something different than the old set of repeating the virtues and giving the old common wisdom passed on from one generation to another. We also have to understand that this great spiritual force has set in motion what we all know from the Guardian to be two parallel processes one of integration, one of disintegration. And that the forces of disintegration are strong and to educate a person morally, who has the moral capability of resisting the forces of disintegration and be able to dedicate himself/herself a 100% to the process of integration and construction, is quite a challenge. So again these are all the different aspects of some of the aspects, some of the contextual questions and issues that have to be considered if we are going to talk about a system of moral education. Now let me stop here and go back to the question I asked you. Think about what we do, what we have done to what extent are we successful in giving this kind of moral education, to bring this kind of preparation in our children and to what extent are we not. What are some of the things that we would have to do in order to be able to be more successful in educating this new moral person who is a true agent of change and an agent of transformation of society. In that sense, that mystical unity, that mystical oneness has to be understood for this moral individual who is going to change the world, to be able to operate at the level that is needed to change the world. Another force that shapes the sense of purpose is attraction to beauty. You can have a great deal of purpose you want to change the world, you want to change yourself, you want to do all sorts of things but this

8 Moral Education Transcribed talk of Dr. Farzam Arbab 8 will not come about just by your pushing. The forces have to be forces pulling you, have to be forces of attraction and the greater attraction is attraction to beauty. Therefore one of the most important forces that shapes your purpose, the purpose of this moral person has to be attraction to beauty. Now this attraction to beauty and perfection manifests itself in different ways. In the concrete world it manifests in arts, in music, in crafts, in attraction to the beauty of nature, to the diversity. In the world of ideas it expresses itself in appreciation for the beauty of ideas, for elegance of a scientific theory, for order, for the beauty of character. So you see morality in itself, the good character, its beauty becomes an attractive force that pulls people towards it. Too much attempt has been made to create morality without attraction to beauty and it is really an impossibility. But it is attraction to beauty that again shapes it, gives it a different texture, a different characteristic to that purposeful person that we are trying to educate. Because the purposeful person can be all sorts or kinds of purposeful persons but the one we want is motivated by unity, by true self-knowledge, by attraction to beauty. This is a different purposeful man than all sorts of other purposeful people that we know who with a great purpose are destroying the world and sometimes with very good intentions behaving wrongly because their purpose is not shaped correctly or has not been formed by the right forces, has not been molded in the proper manner. We are talking in very abstract terms but once in a while some concrete examples may help all these attempts in trying to teach chastity to the young people. All you have to do is to show them real beauty and to educate them from childhood to appreciate beauty, real beauty not the substitute for beauty. When someone is attracted to real beauty they are not going to fall for this nonsense that tries to present itself as beauty. This is a much easier way of doing it than spending one s life trying to tell somebody don t do this, don t do that and protect them. But if one could have established right from the beginning a true appreciation for beauty and an attraction to proven beauty then it would be much easier for the person to discern and say no, I don t want to go this way. This is a substitute and this is not the way to go as this is a cheap substitute for what I really have seen and what I can appreciate as beauty. Let me share with you a couple of quotations. This is really a very beautiful and profound statement. This is from Baha u llah in the Gleanings. I think it merits a great deal of reflection. He says from the exalted source and out the essence of His favour and bounty He hath entrusted every created being with a sign of His knowledge, so that none of His creatures may be deprived of its share in expressing each according to his capacity and rank this knowledge. So He has entrusted every human being, every created thing in fact, with some aspects as the sign of His knowledge. He says this sign is the mirror of His beauty in the world of creation. The greater the effort exerted for the refinement of this sublime and noble mirror, the more faithfully will it be made to reflect. He says, O Son of Dust! All that is in heaven and earthi have ordained for thee, except the human heart which I have made the habitation of My beauty and glory.. O Friends! Abandon not the everlasting beauty for a beauty that must die, and set not your affections on this mortal world of dust. That is the Hidden Word which goes much further to helping our youth in the avoiding of the social problems of our modern world than a thousand sentences of traditional wisdom that we all carry with ourselves and good advice and everything else. The understanding of that Hidden Word if that is really implanted in a child or a youth s heart will protect him.

9 Moral Education Transcribed talk of Dr. Farzam Arbab 9 mind. It is given to man to obtain knowledge, to obtain to great spiritual Another forcewhichalso comes from self-knowledge is the force of recognition of our basic nobility and our basic integrity. The sense of purpose is shaped again by an absolute conviction that we are noble. Remember this Hidden Word O Son of Spirit! I created thee rich, why dost thou bring thyself down to poverty? Noble I made thee, wherewith dost thou abase thyself? Out of the essence of knowledge I gave thee being, why seekest thou enlightenment from anyone beside Me? Out of the clay of love I molded thee, how dost thou busy thyself with another? Turn thy sight unto thyself, that thou mayest find Me standing within thee, mighty, powerful and self-subsisting. The force of this recognition, of this nobility again makes and shapes the purpose of our moral individual very differently than the purpose of many other kinds of people. O My Servant! Thou art even as a finely tempered sword concealed in the darkness of its sheath and its value hidden from the artificer s knowledge. Wherefore come forth from the sheath of self and desire that thy worth may be made resplendent and manifest unto all the world. I would like to mention another force that shapes the sense of purpose the force of love for knowledge, not only for self-knowledge whichwas the sourceof the understanding of unity and the understanding of nobility and so on but the love for the understanding of the mysteries of creation. So again, to have a system of education or moral education which does not instill in the individual, love for knowledge is having a very defective system. Baha u llah says in truth, knowledge is a veritable treasure for man and a source of glory, of bounty, of joy, of exaltation, of cheer and gladness unto him. Happy the man that cleaveth unto it and woe betide the heedless. The first attribute of perfection is learning and the cultural attainment of the perfection, to discover hidden truths. The happiness and pride of a nation consist in this, that it should shine out like the sun in the high heaven of knowledge. In defining and exploring the context within which a system of moral education will develop spiritual qualities, the development of a two fold sense of purpose is essential. But that the sense of purpose has to be shaped by such things as the sense for the eternal, a feeling of eternity, an orientation towards service, selfknowledge, the conviction of the unity of mankind, attraction to beauty, recognition of human nobility and passion for knowledge. So one of the main tasks of moral education would be to somehow create these forces or not necessarily create them as they are there, but to bring them into play within the individual from childhood and somehow help throughout the years to shape a very purposeful human being, moral human being with a high sense of purpose, dedicated to the development of his/her own spiritual qualities and the transformation of society. Therefore the most important goals of moral education would be to develop in each generation, in our children and youth, a sense of purpose. That unless we create a sense of purpose it doesn t exactly make sense to talk about the development of virtues in our children and youth. It makes some sense but really what we need is to create a very clear cut sense of purpose. This sense of purpose is two fold. This purposeful individual is considering the development of his/her own spiritual qualities. At the same time it is the sense of purpose of the transformation of society. So this two fold purpose will have to be

10 Moral Education Transcribed talk of Dr. Farzam Arbab 10 somehow a very important axis of this whole process of moral education. The question of individual growth implies a very purposeful attitude. It implies a volition that the person wishes to be fully engaged in the development of both those qualities that belong to all of humanity truthfulness, love, kindness and so on and at the same time the development of those talents that are unique to each individual. So our definition of a moral person then includes this attitude, this ability and this will, that I am going to dedicate my energy, that I am going to work hard in order to develop both my qualities as a human being which are common toeverybody and develop thoseunique talents that God has given me so that I can contribute uniquely in a unique way to society that is half of my purpose. And then the other half of it has to do with a devotion and dedication and determination to help build a better and transformed society that of course implies a sense of history and an understanding of where we come from and where we are in the history of humanity. It implies an understanding of the great powers that are available to humanity because of this new age, because of what is happening, because of this change from childhood to maturity. New powers have appeared, new possibilities have appeared. So, our system of moral education would have to somehow instill in its students from childhood this kind of understanding so that sense of purpose is developed. The development of this sense of purpose cannot be done in vacuum, it can t just be something, you talk about. You say, alright you have to develop yourself, and you have to contribute to society. You know, we just keep saying this to children as they grow up. This sense of purpose is a very complex attribute of the human mind and the human heart and there are many forces that shape it and a system of moral education, a process of moral education would have to ensure that all of theseforces come to play otherwisethis purposeful individual may not, although he/she has a sense of purpose turn out to be as moral as we want to be. So it is not just any sense of purpose. It is not just any manifestation of human will, it is not just any manifestation of perseverance. It is a sense of purpose that is shaped by the force of a number of very profound convictions and understanding. I would like to mention six or seven of these forces and suggest to you that our efforts of moral education will have to take into account these forces and right from childhood will somehow have to develop these forces, those convictions and beliefs that created and shaped - the twofold sense of purpose in the way that we actually want it to be. I think the first force is the force of a vision of human existence, is the force of a vision of eternity. Without a sense of eternity this moral human being that we are going to try to develop cannot really function the way we want. It is essential that this moral person differentiates between those actions that bring him/her immediate satisfaction and those actions and behaviors that imply eternal happiness. The kind of moral individual we are talking about has the sense that he has to change himself, he has to develop his own talents, he has to help transform society. In other words ifthe development of my own talents and qualities or the improvement of society around me in itself becomes my goal, it is not good enough. The sense of eternity is needed. In this sense there has to be a very clear cut understanding as the child grows and develops the ability to differentiate between what is excitement and what is true joy and happiness. Because it is too easy to fall in love with excitement and become motivated even in the name of bringing change in the world, even in the name of helping others or serving others but by the excitement of it and not by the true joy and happiness which again has to do with a sense of eternity. One of the signs of moral decay in the society that we live in is that people have forgotten what joy is and they

11 Moral Education Transcribed talk of Dr. Farzam Arbab 11 think excitement is joy and happiness and therefore they are constantly after excitement. Today they may find it in such and such sect or religion, tomorrow they will find it in something else, in some political parties or in following some pleasures or whatever it is but it is the constant insatiable search for excitement that motivates a lot of people to do good things, that is not enough. There has to be a distinction between excitement and joy and deep happiness. What it means probably for our efforts then to teach in our Children s Baha i Classes for moral education or spiritual education is that we would have to make sure from the beginning an understanding of the nature of the soul being developed in the child. When they are very young this may take different forms but certainly at a certain age probably the early teens, the Baha i child, junior youth now must necessarily be able to delve into Writings about the nature of the soul and the meaning of life and death in a profound way and become familiar with it and understand it. It cannot be just left to a superficial level of well, we live afterwards or whatever it is. It is the essential that this Baha i child or this Baha i youth recognizes and understands clearly that life is not the comings and goings of this life, that life is the life of the soul that begins on the earth and for a while goes on here then continues and a clear understanding that through happiness and through joy from this journey itself, actually coming closer and closer to God. In that sense right here we can live in heaven and that right here everything that we expect in the next worlds of God is possible to achieve. We have our limitations but this is life already if we consider it to be the life of the soul. But if life is where I go, what I do, what I study, what I eat, all of the things that have to do with this earthly existence, if that is the meaning of life then what we are trying to develop that is, this profound sense of purpose will develop the way that we want it. So the understanding of the meaning of life, the meaning of happiness of the soul are essential. And we have of course many more passages in the Writings that tell us about the life of the soul, about happiness and about the spiritual joy which are an essential aspect of the constitution of a moral purpose. Then of course there are also those passages from the Writings that clearly tell us that happiness is the acquisition of virtues, that happiness is in integrity, in self-respect. So we would have to make sure that our children truly understand the meanings of quotations like these. I would just read a couple of them to you. This is from Abdu l-baha : Man s supreme honour and real happiness lies in self-respect in high resolves and noble purposes, in integrity and moral quality, in immaculacy of mind. Know, ye, verily that the happiness of mankind lieth in the unity and harmony of the human race. The happiness and greatness, the rank and station, the pleasure and peace of an individual have never consisted in his personal wealth but rather in his excellent character, his high resolve, the breath of his learning and the ability to solve different problems. O, beloved friends, strive diligently to acquire such goodly qualities and traits of character as will be the cause of everlasting salvation. Truthfulness and sincerity have always been the ornaments of man s character and so they shall ever be. So in this sense then the sense of purpose we are talking about has to be informed, has to be shaped partially by the sense of eternity and by the understanding of what is immediate and what is eternal, what vanishes and what is lasting. Without that, the kind of morality that we are talking about does not come about. Then the second force that has to also come into play and shape a sense of purpose is the force of understanding that this eternal

12 Moral Education Transcribed talk of Dr. Farzam Arbab 12 happiness, this lasting happiness and the contribution to the progress of society are intimately connected, that the two are not separate from each other. The understanding to help ourselves and to help others are the two aspects of the same process and cannot be separated. If this understanding does not come about then one has the problem of either emphasizing too much one s own individual growth even if it s spiritual growth or emphasize too much social change. But to understand the balance between the two, not as two opposite things that you would try to balance, not as things you put in contraposition, this moral person cannot sit down and decide alright, now, do I do this for myself or do I do this for society? That cannot be the mindset of the person. Do I now sacrifice my own good for the good of society? How can it be? Maybe the good of society and your good are the same thing and what you think you are sacrificing for society couldn t be good for you. We do that constantly. We think, should I sacrifice something that is good for me for the good of the faith. How can that be? If something is not good for the Faith and you are going to do it, can it be good for you? So you see this sense of purpose we are talking about is this two-fold sense of purpose but this moral individual has to understand that they are really the same that they are totally connected with each other and there cannot be any contradictions between them. In this sense helping others and helping ourselves are the two aspects of the same process. Service becomes the basic link that connects these two aspects of this two-fold process. Service is the thing that gives unity and integrity to our purpose and to our being. We don t become divided between ourselves and society, between ourselves and the rest of humanity. We become one integral whole and the thing that manages to connect the two or makes these two things integral, is service. Therefore this moral person we are talking about certainly has to understand the station of service and his/her purpose has to be shaped by the forces of service so that this integrity can be maintained. Again the quotations on service are plenteous. Let me share a few of them with you. The days when idle worship is deemed sufficient are ended. The time has come when only the purest motive supported by deeds of stainless purity can ascend to the throne of the Most High and be acceptable unto Him. That one indeed is the man who today dedicateth himself to the service of the entire human race. Blessed and happy is he that arisethto promote the best interests of the peoples and kindreds of the earth. Again, is there any deed in the world that would be nobler than service to the common good. Is there any greater blessing conceivable for a man than that he should become the cause of the education, the development, the prosperity and honour of his fellow creatures. We are not then talking about the moral individual who is not basically a selfish person who also does good for others. That s really what I am trying to point out. We have plenty of those in the world. But service and the constant dedication to the well being of others is an integral part of the very purpose that motivates and pushes this moral person forward. Another force is the force of self-knowledge. This sense of purpose we are talking about cannot be something the person acquires throughout their life because the system of education constantly repeats to them in one way or another that they are supposed to have a purpose, they are supposed to serve. It has to come from inside and therefore it has to be based on the knowledge of the reality of things. It is the question of the knowledge of the reality of things and more than anything else this knowledge of the reality of the things implies self-knowledge. Now this self-knowledge as you know has nothing to do with going inside ourselves and getting lost in our egos which many people do. It is very

13 Moral Education Transcribed talk of Dr. Farzam Arbab 13 objective the study of the self. Baha u llah tells us that man should know his own self and recognize that which leadeth unto glory or abasement, wealth or poverty. So it is not based on some kind of a romantic notion that we are wonderful, that we are almost God. A system of moral education cannot be based under absurd praise of the individual you are great, you are wonderful, you can do anything just look inside yourself. That is not what one reads in the Writings. It is a systematic understanding of what is inside of us. It is not done in vacuum. It is done within a very clear cut theoretical framework about the nature of man, about having the animal nature which is there and having the higher nature, about knowing and learning what things strengthen our higher nature and what things strengthen our lower nature. It is the systematic study of weakness and strength. It is quite scientific and it is quite objective. But this study is done in the light of the revelation of Baha u llah. This acquisition of self knowledge is not according to the latest most fashionable psychological theory. You know the quotations about the two natures of man that in man there are two natures the spiritual or higher nature and his material or lower nature and so on by Abdu l-baha. You know this quotation man is in the highest degree of materiality and at the beginning of a spirituality. That is to say he is at the end of imperfection and in the beginning of perfection. He is at the last degree of darkness and in the beginning of light. He has the animal side as well as the angelic side and the aim of the educator is to so train human souls that their angelic aspect may overcome their animal side. This quotation is from Some Answered Questions. Now from self knowledge another source arises that again comes to shape our sense of purpose and this is the force of our own consciousness of the organic unity of mankind. It is the understanding and the consciousness that we are all part of an organic whole. That we are the drops of an ocean and that our real individuality, our real self actually becomes apparent when we reach the stage of oneness withhumanity. That knowledge of basic unity is not an imposed unity. It is not imposed solidarity. It is the knowledge of the reality of things, this is the way things are, this is who I am. Again this is not the matter of convenience that if we are united we will live better, if we are united we will each be happier, fine. But the point is that oneness is the reality of our existence and separateness is not the reality of our being. The force of that recognition is a very important and strong force that again shapes the purpose. So this purposeful moral individual becomes a person who is constantly searching for unity and not for superficial degrees of unity but is searching for true oneness. He sees in others the fulfillment of his/her own purpose of his/her own life. In the happiness of the rest of mankind he sees the fulfillment of his own happiness. Because that is the way he feels. So that is the most important force that shapes the purpose of this moral individual. In a practical level, this sense of unity which we would have to foster again in our system of education among our children and youthallows a person who is purposeful, who wants to transform society, who wants to overcome oppression, who wants to establish justice, who wants to createthe structures of a new society and a new civilization but does all of those things without anger, without resentment, without any hatred. This is the purposeful individual who moves along, who changes things. What I would like to discuss is the concept that this moral and purposeful person, this person whose morality is defined in terms of activities not just in terms of passivity or just being good and not doing harm to anybody is one who understands morality as an active principle to achieve personal transformation and the transformation of society.